A number of flour replacements, low calorie flours, and flour extenders have been suggested to mimic the appearance, taste, mouthfeel, and other organoleptic qualities of flour in food products containing it, while simultaneously providing the functional characteristics for dough handling, baking, and the like provided by conventional flour.
For example, low calorie flour for yeast-leavened baked products was suggested by Glicksman, et al., in 1972 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,150). The patent suggested that a correct proportion of .alpha.-cellulose, starch, and a hydrophilic gum, particularly a cellulosic gum, could behave like a bread flour when used in a dough, i.e., the composition formed a sponge system that was plastic and exhibited gluten network-like characteristics. The text of the specification disclosed a composition comprising 30% to 70% .alpha.-cellulose and 30% to 70% starch with 1% to 10% gum, but the two examples illustrated narrower ranges of nearly equal .alpha.-cellulose:starch weight percent ratios (41:55 and 47.9:47.4) and gum concentrations of 3% and 4.7%.
A year later Rennhard suggested that polysaccharides, particularly polyglucose or polymaltose, might serve as a non-nutritive substitute for flour, though the compounds were also suggested for other uses, e.g., bulking agents for food products containing artificial sugar and fat replacements (U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,165). In preferred embodiments set out in the disclosure, glucose or maltose were polymerized in an anhydrous melt in the presence of an organic acid catalyst, and the oligosaccharide formed was then ground or mechanically subdivided to produce a flour-like consistency. Though polydextrose produced according to the invention occasionally exhibited acidic or sour off-flavors depending upon the amount of entrained or chemically bound residual catalyst remaining after condensation of the sugar residues, that problem was addressed in subsequent patents, and polydextrose prepared with organic acid catalysis became widely used as a bulking agent. Hendrick and Reimer suggested in a later patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,644) that polydextrose and many other materials (including air and microcrystalline cellulose) might be employed as inner cores to be coated with a fat material for use as a low calorie fat substitute.
In 1977, Torres suggested that a modified polydextrose polymerized in the presence of a polyol in addition to dextrose provided a crosslinked product that could be mixed with .alpha.-cellulose and/or microcrystalline cellulose and flour to provide a farinaceous food composition that could be used in pastas and baked goods. Broadly speaking, his disclosed composition contained 20% to 75% modified polydextrose, 10% to 40% cellulose, and 5% to 20% flour. It was generally prepared by adding cellulose and flour to an aqueous solution of modified polydextrose and then drying the mixture using conventional methods.
Torres went on to disclose another flour substitute three years later in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,580. This comprised purified plant cellulose such as crystalline .alpha.-cellulose or microcrystalline cellulose and/or non-digestible modified starch such as acid-or enzymatically-hydrolyzed starch combined with xanthan gum, and an emulsifier such as lecithin. Except for the emulsifier and gum choice, the composition resembled that described by Glicksman, et al., summarized above. This Torres flour substitute was prepared by first heating the emulsifier and thoroughly admixing it with the gum. The cellulose and/or starch was then added and the resultant mixture, blended until a homogeneous, free-flowing powder was obtained.
Non-digestible food carbohydrate and/or fat replacements prepared from starch were disclosed by Carrington and Halek the following year (U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,568). These were made by heating starch in the presence of di-or tri-carboxylic acids under reduced pressure. Products that were substantially insoluble were suggested as flour substitutes for baked products and pasta.
Low calorie baked products containing a non-digestible liquid polyol polyester such as sucrose polyester were disclosed by Robbins and Rodriguez in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,782 in 1984. The starch component comprised from about 25% to about 85% microcrystalline cellulose or a mixture of microcrystalline cellulose and flour in a weight ratio of at least 1:1. An anti-anal leakage agent was added to the food recipes to prevent the objectionable gastrointestinal side effects of the synthetic fat ingredient.
From about 0.1% to about 10% cellulosic fiber, defined as including cellulose as well as modified cellulosic material including man-made fibers, were disclosed as a brownie ingredient in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,099 to Feeney, et al. (1988). The recipe, which included other more conventional ingredients such as sugar, flour, shortening, and cocoa, was intended to provide superior moisture retention and texture of the brownies, but it also increased bar cookie height, and enhanced chocolate flavor intensity and tolerance to underbaking. To achieve the benefits of the invention, the cellulosic fiber was processed either by prehydration or co-milling with sugar prior to use in the formulation.
In a statutory invention registration in the early 1990's, Sloan disclosed that a dry blend of randomly-bonded polysaccharide and a cold-water-gelling granular starch was useful as a carbohydrate (and/or fat) replacement (H937). Flour, however, was the major component suggested for the bakery products of the invention. Premixes were also discussed.
About the same time, several other patents described even more specialized ingredients as flour substitutes or extenders. For example, Pflaumer, et al., disclosed that cookie recipes containing psyllium in partial replacement of flour were beneficial for gastrointestinal disorders and reduction of blood cholesterol levels (U.S. Pat. No. 4,9569,140). Cellulose hydrolysates of tamarind endosperm polysaccharides were disclosed as producing oligosaccharides that could be used as a substitute for the metabolizable carbohydrate components of processed foods in U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,387 to Whistler.
It would be desirable to have other low calorie flour substitutes, especially with attributes enabling their use in substitution of flour in baked products with relatively low moisture contents such as crackers and cookies suitable for mass distribution.